Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks can be set up in the home, in a business, or over the Internet. Each network type can require all computers in the network to use the same or a compatible program to connect to each other and access files and other resources found on the other computer. P2P networks can be used for sharing content such as audio, video, data or anything in digital format.
P2P is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers can be equally privileged participants in the application. The owner of each computer on a P2P network may set aside a portion of its resources such as processing power, disk storage or network bandwidth to be made directly available to other network participants.